Cross Country: Baker, St. Paul's sweep to Section 1 finals

MOBILE, Alabama -- In the end, it was all Baker, as Collin Wood and Carsandra Pickens scored individual wins and helped their teams to win their respective titles.

The Hornets swept the boys and girls' competition in Class 6A Section 1 Site A cross country action at Langan Park Thursday afternoon enroute to qualifying for next week's state championships in Moulton.

On the boys' side, Baker placed eight runners in the top 10 to score 19 points and easily beat Mary G. Montgomery, which scored 52. Davidson was third with 78. All three teams automatically qualified for the state meet.

Baker's girls were almost as dominant, placing seven in the top 10 to score 25 points, ahead of Davidson (71), and Murphy (79). All three of those teams qualified for state as well.

Wood won the 6A boys' race in 17:30.54, more than a half-minute ahead of Mary G. Montgomery's Robert Kichler (18:03.71). Although he was hurt on his finishing kick, Hornets coach Paul Agnew said that Wood will be fine for state.

"With a little bit of rest, he'll be alright," Agnew said. "He's a tough young man."

Pickens, meanwhile, displayed toughness on the hills and defeated runner-up Leigh Hoitt by nearly a minute (19:57.32 to 20:57.87). Still, she said it felt great to win.

"I feel very blessed going into the state meet," she said.

The 6A Section 1 Site B meet, which was scheduled for Thursday, was rescheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. at the Nature Preserve in Foley because there was no electronic timing available.

In Class 5A, St. Paul's picked the right time to peak and sweep the Class 5A Section 1 meet.

The Saints, using a 1-2 finish by Alana Babington (19:30.83) and Anna Braswell (20:47.26) won the girls' competition, defeating Spanish Fort, 25-53, with Faith Academy taking the third team qualifying spot.

On the boys side, another 1-2 finish--this time coming from Brett Erickson and Reece Stevens--helped the St. Paul's boys to a 31-37 win over Spanish Fort. Satsuma scored 115 points to finish third and also qualify for the state championships.

"What we've noticed is a steady improvement throughout the season," said St. Paul's coach Jim Tate. "Both the boys and the girls had good races, and it gives us momentum going into next week."